Government yesterday cancelled the upcoming World Summit on Women in Public Life because they could not get 200 people to register.

Acting Telecommunications and E-Commerce Minister Michael Scott said “the small number of registrants” for the $150,000 event would have made it “financially unviable”.

“It was regrettable given the high calibre of overseas and local speakers which had been booked for the event,” he said.

“But after careful consideration of all the options, Government believes that this is the best decision at this time,” he said.

Mr. Scott said cancelling the event now would enable Government to avoid additional expenses which would have been incurred through “contractual obligations with other key stakeholders”.

He added: “There were those who believed that registration would have increased as we got closer to the event, but we were not confident in attracting the 200 registrants from the public and the private sector by the summit date,” he said.

The summit was due to take place at the end of May. The $150,000 cost included the price of renting part of the Fairmont Southampton Hotel and flying in special guest speakers from overseas.

Tickets for the Summit would have cost $500 per person.

The last summit took place in October, 2002 when numbers were boosted when Government arranged for a number of civil servants to attend.

Mr. Scott did not say whether another Summit would be planned in the future.

He added that although members of the public said they would register, they never did.

“All registrants will be refunded in full,” he said.